The World According to Angie

New Series: Our Old House

When Jim and I got married, I moved into the house he'd bought nine months prior. It's in Plano, a suburban city in the northern portion of the Dallas metroplex. Built in the mid-1970's, it's a single story ranch-style home with three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, two living areas and a 2-car attached garage.

I like to say the house has "good bones". Which is another way of saying it has "potential" ... or, to be a bit more blunt, "I can't wait to remodel it."

The bathrooms are original (complete with shell-shaped sinks), as is the kitchen (though the appliances seem to have been replaced in the early 90's). The living room features wood paneling; day by day, I can't decide whether I love it or hate it. And whoever made remodeling decisions over the years must have been smoking some serious stuff; the flooring ranges from saltillo tile to carpet to vinyl to ceramic to stained concrete, the master bath is painted a deep red over an ugly dark grey-blue, and the jack-and-jill bath features mix-and-match navajo-print wallpaper in mauve and powder blue.

So we're taking it one project at a time, and turning this house - which is in a great location, just 10 minutes from the office, in a quiet neighborhood on a lot that features giant 30-year-old oak trees  - into the perfect home for us... one room at a time.  And not going into debt to do it (we're paying cash for each project as we go).

I plan on eventually creating a scrapbook to chronicle the remodeling process, and I thought my blog would be the perfect place to capture these stories as they happen.

Welcome to the tales of Our Old House!

Santa Claus on Vacation

 

I was lounging on deck the last day of our cruise, and as I glanced over at my father, I realized I had to pick up my camera. IMMEDIATELY.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what Santa Claus looks like on vacation.

Dad's beard is just as thick and bushy as it is in November and December. (Okay, so maybe it's a little more grey than white, but he only bleaches it once a year.) It was utterly hysterical to be on the cruise with him and see how many people responded to his look with a double-take, a gasp, and the declaration, "It's Santa!"

There were the little kids in the Windjammer Cafe, staring at him all through breakfast.  There were the waiters and other staff members who greeted him with a chorus of, "Hey, Santa!" But funniest of all had to be the street vendors in Cozumel, Mexico who shouted "San Nicolas! Feliz Navidad!"

All right, I give in. I'll stop saying my Dad looks like a scary homeless man with that big, bushy beard. After all, how many people can bring so much joy to so many just by walking into a room?

I love ya, Santa-Daddy.

Convergence is a beautiful thing

In late January, just before my weeks of non-stop travel began, a Very Bad Thing happened. My phone died.

About seven months earlier, Jim and I upgraded our cell phones when we combined them onto a single family plan. (It's one of those things that's part of combining two modern households... Figuring out how to merge your cell phone coverage onto one plan.)

We both got these sweet little Tilt phones; cool features, full keyboards, and since they were both refurbs, we didn't spend a lot out of pocket.

But in January - a month after the refurb warranty expired - mine went kaplooey. The battery went dead. You'd plug it in to charge, and you'd get no juice. Put in a new battery, connect the charger, and it would rapidly drain - like the polarity had been reversed or something.

Repair was going to be as expensive as getting a new phone. And I wasn't eligible for equipment discounts (thank you, AT&T) for another year.

So while I traveled, I used my work Blackberry as my primary phone. That worked okay for a while, and I didn't feel bad about using it for personal use since a new company policy has us paying $20 a month out of our paycheck to cover "incidental personal use".

Funny... I never used it got personal calls until they started making me pay for it. But suddenly, I was using it for ALL my calls. (I'll admit to a bit of a pissy attitude: you're gonna make me pay for it? Then, by God, I'm going to use it!)

My boss actually asked me why I wasn't just using my Blackberry as my sole phone - I think that's what he does -and while that's nice in theory, it wasn't practical. You see, our IT team has them locked down so you can't SMS and you can't surf sites they deem "non-work related" ... so no updating FaceBook via Blackberry. You know ... the important stuff.

So for the last four months, I've been on a tear about needing a new phone. Poor Jim... I went from sly hints to loving suggestions to outright browbeating.

You see, I decided that if I had to buy a new phone anyway, and I wasn't going to be eligible for an upgrade discount, I might as well get the device I REALLY wanted: an iPhone.

Oh, yeah....!

I'm a rabid PC user, not quite anti-Mac, but decidedly PC-preferring ... however, when it comes to MP3 players and mobile devices, I'm a huge Apple fan. After years of using Creative Labs devices, I finally bought an iPod Nano a couple years ago, and fell in love with everything about it. When it came time to upgrade it, I went to a high-capacity video iPod, which has been my constant companion for the last year. And as my frustration grew with lugging multiple devices - my purse laden with a phone, iPod, point-and-shoot camera, Blackberry, and more - the attraction of a single device to "do it all" became overwhelming.

Last night, my sweet husband acquiesced to my pleas. He made me one very, VERY happy Angie with a trip to the Apple store at Willow Bend Mall...

...and 30 minutes later, I walked out with my new 16GB iPhone in hand.

To say I'm fascinated with my new toy - excuse me, TOOL - would be a massive understatement. This morning, on the way to drop Jim off at DFW airport (he's in San Francisco this weekend for another Toastmasters conference) I sat in the passenger seat, utterly engrossed. "New Twitter post - I got an iPhone - send! Here's a picture of Jim I just took with my iPhone - post to TwitPic - send! And here's an email I just sent with the picture I just took, all with my iPhone - send!"

Yes, I know I'm being ridiculous. But the novelty will wear off soon and I'll stop posting pictures of my car keys. (I think...)

After months of waiting, and researching, and talking to friends, getting opinions and really thinking through what I wanted and how I'd actually use it... I was pretty darn sure I was making a solid, informed decision. So far, no regrets!

The whole "convergence" thing is what I appreciate the most. I have, ostensibly, half a dozen devices all in one. Just one thing to clip to my hip, or pop in my purse, and I'm set!

It's been ridiculously easy to set up and get going. It uses iTunes for all sync functions with my PC. I just had to tell it to grab my contacts from Outlook, and suddenly all thousand-plus email addresses, names, and numbers were on my phone. Same thing with my calendar.

16GB isn't enough to store my entire music collection on here, so I just grabbed all my current playlists and dragged them over. And as for video, I decided to put one set of Looney Tunes cartoons on here just in case there's a kid I need to entertain (myself included). My video iPod will still come with me on long trips, at least until the day comes they make an 80GB version of the iPhone.

The keyboard on this is taking some getting used to. My fingertips are bigger than the letter keys, so I'm frequently hitting the wrong letters; however, Apple has a really "smart" auto-correct function on the text entry. I'm learning to just type fast, and about 90% of the time it gets it right. (And the more I use it, I think I'm beginning to get a little more accurate.)

My one complaint about the text entry is the way you have to place the cursor if you need to edit or insert something. With no arrow keys to back up a precise number of spaces, you have to use your finger to "place" the cursor. It's like using a big, fat Bingo ink dotter to try and dot the i on your signature. But I'm getting better at that, too, albeit slowly.

The plethora of applications available for the iPhone is, quite frankly, overwhelming. Like the commercial says, "there's an app for that." Rather than blowing a bunch of cash on downloads, I decided to start with just a few tools I knew I'd use, and then add to my collection slowly, over time.

I installed the tools for Facebook,Twitter, and TypePad (which I'm using, incidentally, to compose this post). Next came a couple of games - Sudoku, Tetris, and Myst. And I also picked up a Tip Calculator for dining out that'll even help you split the bill.

I'm looking at a couple list-making programs for grocery lists and the like... and I figure I'll continue collecting apps over time. (If you're an iPhone user, be sure to post a comment about the apps you can't live without - I'd love to check 'em out!)

The verdict after my first 24 hours of iPhone ownership: it was worth the wait. I'm discovering all sorts of new things I love as I play with it - like the incredible control it gives you over your voicemail with it's sweet button-based menu interface... the way it pauses your song or video or game automatically when a call comes in... how easy it is to install apps or ringtones or photos or just about anything with the sync interface in iTunes...

I have no doubt I'll have more to blog about my newfound love for the iPhone on days to come. For now, I'll say wholeheartedly: convergence is a beautiful thing!

Microblogging

Here I thought I was just being lazy; apparently, what I'm doing is "microblogging".

It's been months since I've logged regular entries here on my blog. I can come up with all the normal excuses - I've been busy, stressed, consumed with other things - but I know that I find balance through writing. This is important.

Lately, however, I've been recording my thoughts in 140 character chunks via Twitter. I keep TweetDeck open on my computer throughout the day, and I find great amusement in my friends' Tweets. I take a minute here or there to scan through the updates and find out what my friends are up to... almost like meeting up with all my favorite people at the watercooler, except it takes much less time, and they're all spread across the world. 

I've linked Twitter to Facebook, so it automatically updates my status. And that feeds Plaxo. And my profile on the MSN network. (Tell me: exactly why do we need so many stinkin' social networks?!?)

I've also linked it here to my blog. On the right side of the screen, you'll see a section labeled "Microblogging" that shows my five most recent Tweets. So if nothing here is new, at least that will be.

I'm going to re-focus on my blogging. Like I said, it's important. And boy, do I have stuff to talk about! It may not amuse anyone but me ... but then again, that's sort of the purpose of this blog anyway.

Of course, that's not to say microblogging doesn't have its benefits. Learning to say something quasi-meaningful in 140 characters is a way to practice brevity.

And that's never been my strong suit.

Overhaul complete

I don't precisely know what bug bit me this evening. Maybe it's the rain, or the springtime urge for fresh, new, and clean. Or maybe I was looking for another way to avoid blogging.

Regardless, "The World According to Angie" now has an updated look for spring.

I wanted something sort of citrusy without being too overwhelmingly bright. Orange sort of "does" it for me right now. I found the color scheme at http://kuler.adobe.com/ (If you do anything graphic- or art-related, you MUST bookmark this site!)

I'm also playing with some of the new features TypePad is offering to subscribers. The new Design tool is much-improved, and they're making it really easy to add widgets and other fun stuff to the sidebar. (Hence, the changes you see here.)

So, now that my blog is all fresh and shiny again, I guess that means I ought to start using it, huh?